last couple years have been a mad trip
by TellYouTomorrow
Summary: Tom Riddle survives the Chamber of Secrets, but in the end it doesn't matter.


I wrote this a while ago for something, and I thought of this when I decided I should finally publish a story here.

Prompt: Chamber of Secrets - Tom Riddle lives

But this is definitely more of a Sirius should have lived fix-it, with a high suspension of disbelief for the plot plausibility, even within the magical world.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

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Pouring his memories into the Ministry's pensieve, Harry Potter thought about the room would see as he testified to condemn Peter Pettigrew. As an attendant approached the bowl, Harry let his mind wander when the memories were being displayed to the courthouse.

xxxxxxx

Twelve-year-old Harry Potter sat frozen on the ground of the Chamber of Secrets. He saw the life leaving Ginny and empowering Tom Riddle, but while healed, he was still dazed. He couldn't do anything as the man in front of him raised his wand. As he was hit with a flash of light, the last thing he heard was Tom Riddle's laughter as he felt Fawkes lift his body from the stones where Ginny had breathed for the last time.

Awakening to the familiar view of the Hospital Wing, Harry's mind immediately went to Tom Riddle, and he was assaulted with memories of the events in the Chamber. Blinking away the blurriness from sleep, he saw a red-haired figure above him. "Ron? Wha-." Harry was then hit with a sharp pang of shame as he remembered Ginny's fate. He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry about Ginny. I tried but Riddle was too strong and-." Ron cut him off, and Harry absentmindedly noted that Scabbers was shivering.

"It's not your fault, mate. We all know that. You couldn't have done anything more." Harry looked around, realizing his bedside was surrounded. Despite Ron's words, the sight of all the Weasleys, with Molly still dabbing her eyes with a tissue, only intensified the guilt.

Harry then noticed Dumbledore standing a few feet away from the group. "Professor Dumbledore, Tom Riddle, where is he? What happened? His spell hit me..." Trailing off, he looked at the headmaster with trepidation.

"I am afraid I cannot answer all of your questions, Harry. As for the spell, that is simple. Tom intended to end your life, but as he was not yet fully alive when the spell was cast, it only heavily stunned you, although nothing could rouse you before your body was recovered enough to wake. After my dear Fawkes lifted you out of the Chamber, he returned to get Mr. Weasley, our rather indisposed Defense against the Dark Arts professor, and the items that you used." Dumbledore paused, letting some of Harry's bedside well-wishers part to show Lockhart on a hospital bed in another corner of the room, mumbling incoherently. "As for where Tom Riddle is, I'm afraid I cannot answer that. According to the Sorting Hat, he vanished when you were being lifted by Fawkes. I can only hope we can be prepared for what is to come."

xxxxxxx

The now thirteen-year-old Harry had just landed in the graveyard of Tom Riddle Senior. The newly revealed Peter Pettigrew, hoping to get into his master's good graces, had created a portkey. Before Harry could get his bearings, he heard a cold voice, "Kill the spare." Harry couldn't react in time, with his scar burning in pain, but his godfather's reflexes from battle training and life on the run succeeded. In seconds, Sirius had dodged the flash of light and had his wand out in front of him.

"Get behind me, Harry." As Sirius pushed past him, another death eater stepped up and began to duel with the long-haired man.

After only moments, the cold voice spoke again, "Enough. Do not waste time on this. Wormtail?" Harry found himself and Sirius suddenly restrained with ropes to adjacent headstones in the cemetery. Harry could barely move with the pain in his scar. As Wormtail approached the man to make sure the knots of the rope were secured, Sirius spat in his face.

"You murdering snake, I'll kill you!" As Pettigrew went to gag him, Sirius bit his hand. Wormtail jumped back, shaking, and was hesitant in his second approach.

Once more, the voice spoke. "I said, _enough_." Tom Riddle came into Harry's vision. With a wave of his wand, neither Harry nor Sirius could speak or move. "Begin the process." Neither man could move as Tom Riddle directed Wormtail to the bubbling cauldron, Riddle's emotionless instructions a harsh contrast to Pettigrew's stuttering and fearful demeanor. When the skeletal figure finally stepped out of the cauldron, it shook hands with Tom Riddle. Harry was struck with grim dismay. Lord Voldemort had risen again, and now he had two of himself.

xxxxxxx

"Harry, there is something I must tell you," Dumbledore's expression was grave as he approached the recently turned fourteen-year-old boy sitting at the kitchen table of 12 Grimmauld Place. It was very early in the morning, letting the two talk uninterrupted; after the events at the graveyard, where the Priori Incantatem had given Harry and Sirius the opportunity to escape from Voldemort and "Marvolo", as the younger Riddle had rechristened himself, Harry had been having more nightmares.

"What, professor?" Harry responded.

"I have refrained from telling you this, as I had believed it might be easier to understand with age, but the events of last year have shown me the necessity of it. Harry, have you heard the term _horcrux_ before?" As Dumbledore told Harry the story of a half-blood orphan with the charisma to match his ambition, Harry could only listen with rapt attention at the tale which had too many parallels to his own to make him comfortable.

xxxxxxx

At fifteen, Harry was frantically battling death eaters in the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic. For the past two years, he had been working with the revived Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore to rid Voldemort of his horcruxes, and now that they were all destroyed except those kept close to Voldemort, the Order had decided that Harry should pretend to fall into the Dark Lord's trap, and trigger the battle that would end everything.

In the periphery of his vision he saw Dumbledore vanquishing Marvolo, Neville facing the snake Nagini, and he knew that later he would be the one to face Voldemort. In this moment, however, all he saw was Peter Pettigrew attempting to leave the battle. "Oh no you don't," Harry growled. "You don't get to run away from everything you've done this time." His temper flashing, he bound the cowardly man in chains. "You're going to pay for what you did to my parents." With a glance to make sure Pettigrew was secured, ignoring his pleas for mercy, he jumped back into the battle, and on to defeat Voldemort.

xxxxxxx

The jury seemed startled when the flood of memories ended, some even shaken. Harry, however, spoke without hesitation. "Here, you can see, regardless of the "lack of proof" there is for Peter Pettigrew causing the deaths of James and Lily Potter, he is guilty of consorting with Death Eaters and serving Voldemort. My firm belief is that he should therefore serve the sentence for this crime. As was requested by former minister Fudge, I have also submitted evidence on how Lord Voldemort was able to rise to power during such a... calm period for the Ministry of Magic." Harry remained standing, flashing a triumphant glance at Fudge, who paled even further than the memories had left him.

"Thank you very much for your statements, Mr. Potter. You may leave." Harry nodded back to new Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had insisted on overseeing every death eater trial himself.

As he left the dais, he murmured to Pettigrew, who sat shivering in chains, "You deserve ten lifetimes in Azkaban for everything you've done. Be grateful for my mercy." Sixteen-year-old Harry Potter smiled as he left the Ministry. He was looking forward to meeting Ron and Hermione in Diagon Alley; there was the next school year at Hogwarts to shop for, after all.

xxxxxxx

Title from the song "Doom Days" by Bastille


End file.
